@humanprogress (Twitter)

"Capitalism" has become a scapegoat for all kinds of flawed institutions and the problems they cause. Many anti-capitalist activists don't understand capitalism as an economic framework, nor do they realize how hypocritical their criticisms can be.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations' Global Conflict Tracker, the Western Hemisphere is, with the exception of the drug war in Mexico, free of conflict. No person alive can remember our Hemisphere to be as peaceful as it is today.

What reduces prices, market competition or subsidies? From 1997 to 2017, college textbooks increased in price by 200%. (Higher education is highly subsidized). But TVs fell in price by 95% - you could get 25 TVs in 2017 for the price of one in 1997!

Nancy, milk in 1970 was $1.15/gallon when min wage was less than $2. By 2019 standards a gallon of milk should be over $9/gallons to make buying power equal. Gas was $0.36/gal which would make it over $7/gallon today.

Had Golden Rice "been allowed to grow in ... [poor] nations, millions of lives would not have been lost to malnutrition, and millions of children would not have gone blind.”

“It’s the first time in human history countries representing more than half the world’s population and 80% of GDP are working together to achieve a common goal that is absolutely critical.”

We are chasing unlimited CO2-free energy with fusion reactors. Human ingenuity has solved our problems before (e.g., we don't kill whales for lamp oil anymore) and will do so again. Read more about the power of human intelligence: https://humanprogress.org/article.php?p=1612

The idea of the environment as a clean canvas being steadily spoiled by humanity is simplistic and wrong. As we become richer, we have become cleaner and greener. - Alex Epstein

An unskilled laborer saw his or her purchasing power double every 34 years between 1919 and 2019.

Extreme poverty fell from 36% in 1990 to less than 10% today. It is fascinating that this progress takes place just as many in the West are starting to doubt free trade and global capitalism.